We spent an hour sneaking around the roof of Cragmaw Castle castle, having sent the servant in via a hole in a wall. Its instruction was "stay within range, and poke any eyes that you see". We were only trying to run reconnaissance by listening for creatures going "Ow!", but ended up convincing some goblins the place was haunted, and scared a bunch of them in to the path of a rampaging owlbear. 😁
second paragraph of the spell description: "you can mentally command the servant to move up to 15 feet and interact with an object." I'd rule that a uvula is not an 'object', it's part of a 'creature' in game rule terms... and as such unseen servant couldn't interact with it. It also mentions that it can perform tasks that a human servant could, so the 'going into your brain' etc etc is a no. The giving pleasure... well see my first point lol. it could unzip someone's fly maybe but that'd be about it. The poison question I would say yes, since it's object interactions. As for plugging up orifices... well it has to be within an hour (unless multiple castings) and within 60 feet of the caster so... but again that relies on the ruling that said orifice is an object and not part of a creature, which is up to the DM. We are unfortunately left to interpret things a specific way, and I hate to say no to enterprising players as much as the next DM but... there are limits.
Step 1. Abuse Ritual Casting to spend 40 min ahead of time and get 4 Unseen servants using 0 spell slots. Step 2. Use clothing, bed sheets and armor from dead bandits and ect. Cover your servants in these cloth's/clothing. Think bed-sheet ghost costume. Step 3. Turn your band of 4 players to a band of 8 (4 real + 4 clothed servants) Step 4. Make unseen servant as distraction by placing them between you and any enemies.
The unseen servant is medium size. I don't think a person sized force can enter someone's throat, much less their brain. It's invisible, but it's not intangible.
In roleplay terms I'd say that the unseen servant interacts with the world via willpower, and has basically no will of its own. So anything with any amount of willpower has an infinitely high spell resistance compared to its attack ability. Even an insect has more willpower than the unseen servant, undead as well, any construct with enough magic to self ambulate has more resistance than it has power. It can't attack because only things which have no choice but what they do can really be affected by it.
The key word is mindless. They would be loud and thoughtless. To pressure it takes thought. The servants can one have one duty to do in life and that's all it can do.
I believe this is more of a distinction for direct attacks versus indirect attacks. If your unseen servant hands you a glass beaker, but it slips and breaks over your foot causing a shard of glass to impale on your foot. The only way to have prevented this is for the unseen servant to not be able to interact with items that could accidentally cause damage and that doesn't make sense. Choking someone is directly attacking someone. Tying their shoes together would be indirect. They could see that their shoes are tied together and untie them or just not move in any direction. The unseen servant should be able to set traps when there are probabilities that the trap may never be sprung. As long it is not directly attacking someone, then it should be able to preform the task. As far as the unseen servant arousing someone, that would be a direct attack unless it were consensual.
I like Unseen Servant. I think a common sense reading of the spell solves most of your problems. Can it choke someone? No. That is not a simple task. To demonstrate, try to shove your hand down an unwilling person's mouth and tell me how easy it is. Can it stimulate pleasure centers? No. That is not a simple task, plus it would have to get through the skull to do it. Can it tie shoelaces together? Yes, but not in combat. Tying someone's shoelaces together while they're sitting down is easy enough. Tying them together while that person is moving around, even if they are unaware of you, is almost impossible. Also, as DM, you don't have to grant that their shoes/boots are lace-up. More often than not, in character art, boots are either unfastened, or fastened with buckles. Can it perform fellatio? Yes, but opening someone's pants during combat is not a simple task. Also, that's a creepy idea, and your party and any NPCs present will likely look at you differently after seeing this; those who are not creeped out may ask to "borrow" your Unseen Servant some time. Personally, I tend to picture Unseen Servants as operating at the speed of an empty "No Face" from the anime "Spirited Away," and so be completely non-threatening and unable to act on anyone against their will.
Great way of putting it. Servants can do simple things, but it's not going to be simple anymore if the task at hand is being rapidly and unpredictably moved around. It can't do anything that any average joe off the street couldn't do themselves if you asked them, and of course can't physically attack them.
Ok but like you can just have him trip people, he’s not even moving just standing there and when they run over they just straight up fall and you get a bonus to hit so yk that’s pretty useful
Overthinking at its finest. It can interact with objects but not creatures. My favorite use for it is, to put a cloak and mask on it, making it look like another figure that can be attacked, ya it only one attack but that one attack the party is not taking. Another good one is so sort of light source so you can have a lit torch be carried without having to occupy one of your hands.
To be honest, as a DM I would totally allow the player to ask the Unseen Servant to attempt to suffocate a target, but the target would quickly realize it, feel its presence, slap or cut through the air and either push it aside or dissipate it (10 AC, 1 HP). All forms of damage should affect it except for Psychic as it is mindless. Regarding the unseen servant pouring poison, I think that's totally acceptable... except remember that although the servant is invisible... what it carries is not. And an object moving midair could be easily spotted by any nearby passive perception. So I would say if the players would cause a distraction first, succeed at it, while the unseen servant does the poison bit... that could work :) I always like to reward creativity and well thought out strategy. Regarding the disturb a caster to disrupt casting a spell, the unseen servant would need to already be beside it, remember its speed is 15 ft which is pretty slow. I 100% agree with your last statement! DMs be prepared for creative players :D though to be honest that's for me the essence of D&D: creative usage of fantasy tools flavored up with RP.
You need to have some criteria. An unseen servant cannot enter creatures. It can push but its not strong enough to move someone. Can it takes Poisons? Yes. But the poison is not invisible Can it tie laces? Avsolutely.
The spell says what the spell can do. It can "move up to 15 feet and interact with an object," provided you use a bonus action to command it to do so. Most of these are just a flat no because they aren't interacting with an object.
Personally, I think the spell would be better if instead of creating an invisible force, it did something like animate a pair of gloves to float around and perform tasks for you. Or at least make the 'servant' visible in some way. For example, it could create a floating light, a shadowy form, or animate a broom to make it walk around carrying buckets, etc.
Make a pole with T on top. Buy a 5X5 square of cloth, suspend the cloth from the T on the pole. Now have the servant hold up the cloth. This breaks line of sight and if the servant moves the cloth in between two creatures that would stop opportunity attacks. This is because you need to SEE the creature when it moves away from you. If you move behind the raised cloth, by RAW, you could take the hide action. Again if you move behind the raised cloth you are behind total cover. So you pop out cast a spell then pop behind total cover. Sure it won’t realistically stop every spell casters because they can move unless this happens in some hallway or cave. Just have some barrier stopping everyone from walking around tour make shift.
Honestly, I'd probably house rule it instead of the unseen servant not being able to attack have it follow a rule set like 1. You must do no harm to anything or anyone 2. you must work to the best of your ability to please your sumener as long as it doesn't conflict with rule 1 etcetera. you could probably make it into a story as well if someone uses the unseen servant spell a lot you could make it intervene at a crucial moment and disappear afterward not being able to be summoned again like it broke the rules but that's probably just me wanting to add more depth to everything.
The issues you outlined with unseen servant have never given me pause. Obviously acting on another person against their will, is a form of attack. The issue I have with it is, what does it mean to say that it is "mindless" when it can serve food and fold clothing, even mending (Mending! as in full on sewing!) and so on, those actions seem to require a mind, especially because it can do these things autonomously without continuous prompts from the caster. Can it preform anything that does not require a skill check? Can it drive a carriage down a straight path? Can it search a library for a particular book? Can it ring a bell if it sees an intruder while you sleep? These are all very simple tasks but also seem to require a mind, just like those it talks about in the spells description. This leads some DMs to police it by forcing the caster to micromanage everything the servant does with telepathic commands, which seems wrong. I would feel more comfortable if it were given an intelligence score.
Does a computer need a constant input to do such tasks? No otherwise we wouldn't have alarm systems. It has no will, it has no mind, however when you give it a task that it can do it will complete the task like a machine.
@@andresmarrero8666 I think you're right, it doesnt need a "mind" really, I think the real problem is, in D&D the success or failure of performing tasks comes from stats. An unseen servants *only* use is to preform tasks. I actually *would* give a computer an Int score too. It wouldn't represent sentience. It would be about computing power, or how sophisticated sensors are. You'd only give something an Int of 0 if, thematically, you wanted it to always fail at tasks- like a zombie.
I have a question the unseen Servant spell said it can performs simple task that a human servant could do, such as fetching things, cleaning, Mending, folding clothes, lighting fires, serving food, and pouring wine. The mending part is catching my eye and it use the mending cantrip? Also your video was great it was really helpful; keep up the good work.
Those are all easy ruling for me.. US is not a creature and not an ally and so it can't give you help and advantage in combat. Any ingenious way the players come up with is only flavour to get the advantage, which can't be done, therefore, doesn't work. It could pour poison on food, it could tie shoes together, it can take items from behind the counter and put it in your bag. But easily fixable by the ruling that it can't do stealth checks and people can see it. So you can only get away with it if nobody is watching, and therefore, anybody could do it anyway.
The only issue with this spell are those seeking to make it an issue. The description is pretty clear on its limitations, you basically have an invisible butler and can do what an ordinary butler can reasonably do, no more no less. It is that simple, and as a general rule spells aren't made for surgery and it would simply be quicker, easier, and faster to just use a spell that is designed to directly harm a person.
The description of the unseen servant have a very very ambiguous description like say the requirements for it "a piece of string and a little bit of wood" well a piece a piece can be in any size it can be 100km × 100km or 1cm × 1cm or heck a single piece of a string particles (I unconciously uses the word a "single piece" lel proving that this point is right) that goes the same for the wood a little bit of wood the word little big or small are based on your preception of it meaning little can also be a single particle of wood. Which means taking a strain of string from your shirt and punch a little bit of tree to get a little wood would be enough for frickin idk 23^10? Unseen servants?. And the description only said they can't attack and every other orders they will take to the best of their ability, they doesn't say how many servants can you cast in that one turn. An interesting idea to use the unseen servant following my theory: filled the whole 60ft of yourself with unseen servants and tell them to carry each other and follow you around making focused attack unusable but aoe might still hit you
![[TF2] The Russian Bear Trap](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YFNSwz2_rOA/mqdefault.jpg)
We spent an hour sneaking around the roof of Cragmaw Castle castle, having sent the servant in via a hole in a wall. Its instruction was "stay within range, and poke any eyes that you see". We were only trying to run reconnaissance by listening for creatures going "Ow!", but ended up convincing some goblins the place was haunted, and scared a bunch of them in to the path of a rampaging owlbear. 😁
second paragraph of the spell description: "you can mentally command the servant to move up to 15 feet and interact with an object." I'd rule that a uvula is not an 'object', it's part of a 'creature' in game rule terms... and as such unseen servant couldn't interact with it.
It also mentions that it can perform tasks that a human servant could, so the 'going into your brain' etc etc is a no.
The giving pleasure... well see my first point lol. it could unzip someone's fly maybe but that'd be about it.
The poison question I would say yes, since it's object interactions.
As for plugging up orifices... well it has to be within an hour (unless multiple castings) and within 60 feet of the caster so... but again that relies on the ruling that said orifice is an object and not part of a creature, which is up to the DM. We are unfortunately left to interpret things a specific way, and I hate to say no to enterprising players as much as the next DM but... there are limits.
Step 1. Abuse Ritual Casting to spend 40 min ahead of time and get 4 Unseen servants using 0 spell slots.
Step 2. Use clothing, bed sheets and armor from dead bandits and ect. Cover your servants in these cloth's/clothing. Think bed-sheet ghost costume.
Step 3. Turn your band of 4 players to a band of 8 (4 real + 4 clothed servants)
Step 4. Make unseen servant as distraction by placing them between you and any enemies.
The unseen servant is medium size. I don't think a person sized force can enter someone's throat, much less their brain. It's invisible, but it's not intangible.
In roleplay terms I'd say that the unseen servant interacts with the world via willpower, and has basically no will of its own. So anything with any amount of willpower has an infinitely high spell resistance compared to its attack ability. Even an insect has more willpower than the unseen servant, undead as well, any construct with enough magic to self ambulate has more resistance than it has power. It can't attack because only things which have no choice but what they do can really be affected by it.
The key word is mindless. They would be loud and thoughtless. To pressure it takes thought. The servants can one have one duty to do in life and that's all it can do.
I believe this is more of a distinction for direct attacks versus indirect attacks. If your unseen servant hands you a glass beaker, but it slips and breaks over your foot causing a shard of glass to impale on your foot. The only way to have prevented this is for the unseen servant to not be able to interact with items that could accidentally cause damage and that doesn't make sense. Choking someone is directly attacking someone. Tying their shoes together would be indirect. They could see that their shoes are tied together and untie them or just not move in any direction. The unseen servant should be able to set traps when there are probabilities that the trap may never be sprung. As long it is not directly attacking someone, then it should be able to preform the task. As far as the unseen servant arousing someone, that would be a direct attack unless it were consensual.
I like Unseen Servant. I think a common sense reading of the spell solves most of your problems.
Can it choke someone? No. That is not a simple task. To demonstrate, try to shove your hand down an unwilling person's mouth and tell me how easy it is.
Can it stimulate pleasure centers? No. That is not a simple task, plus it would have to get through the skull to do it.
Can it tie shoelaces together? Yes, but not in combat. Tying someone's shoelaces together while they're sitting down is easy enough. Tying them together while that person is moving around, even if they are unaware of you, is almost impossible. Also, as DM, you don't have to grant that their shoes/boots are lace-up. More often than not, in character art, boots are either unfastened, or fastened with buckles.
Can it perform fellatio? Yes, but opening someone's pants during combat is not a simple task. Also, that's a creepy idea, and your party and any NPCs present will likely look at you differently after seeing this; those who are not creeped out may ask to "borrow" your Unseen Servant some time.
Personally, I tend to picture Unseen Servants as operating at the speed of an empty "No Face" from the anime "Spirited Away," and so be completely non-threatening and unable to act on anyone against their will.
Great way of putting it. Servants can do simple things, but it's not going to be simple anymore if the task at hand is being rapidly and unpredictably moved around. It can't do anything that any average joe off the street couldn't do themselves if you asked them, and of course can't physically attack them.
Ok but like you can just have him trip people, he’s not even moving just standing there and when they run over they just straight up fall and you get a bonus to hit so yk that’s pretty useful
Overthinking at its finest.
It can interact with objects but not creatures.
My favorite use for it is, to put a cloak and mask on it, making it look like another figure that can be attacked, ya it only one attack but that one attack the party is not taking.
Another good one is so sort of light source so you can have a lit torch be carried without having to occupy one of your hands.
Oooooor just use mage hand
To be honest, as a DM I would totally allow the player to ask the Unseen Servant to attempt to suffocate a target, but the target would quickly realize it, feel its presence, slap or cut through the air and either push it aside or dissipate it (10 AC, 1 HP). All forms of damage should affect it except for Psychic as it is mindless.
Regarding the unseen servant pouring poison, I think that's totally acceptable... except remember that although the servant is invisible... what it carries is not. And an object moving midair could be easily spotted by any nearby passive perception.
So I would say if the players would cause a distraction first, succeed at it, while the unseen servant does the poison bit... that could work :) I always like to reward creativity and well thought out strategy.
Regarding the disturb a caster to disrupt casting a spell, the unseen servant would need to already be beside it, remember its speed is 15 ft which is pretty slow.
I 100% agree with your last statement! DMs be prepared for creative players :D though to be honest that's for me the essence of D&D: creative usage of fantasy tools flavored up with RP.
You need to have some criteria.
An unseen servant cannot enter creatures. It can push but its not strong enough to move someone.
Can it takes Poisons? Yes. But the poison is not invisible
Can it tie laces? Avsolutely.
The spell says what the spell can do. It can "move up to 15 feet and interact with an object," provided you use a bonus action to command it to do so. Most of these are just a flat no because they aren't interacting with an object.
Personally, I think the spell would be better if instead of creating an invisible force, it did something like animate a pair of gloves to float around and perform tasks for you. Or at least make the 'servant' visible in some way. For example, it could create a floating light, a shadowy form, or animate a broom to make it walk around carrying buckets, etc.
How about if it requires a roll, it fails.
Make a pole with T on top. Buy a 5X5 square of cloth, suspend the cloth from the T on the pole. Now have the servant hold up the cloth. This breaks line of sight and if the servant moves the cloth in between two creatures that would stop opportunity attacks. This is because you need to SEE the creature when it moves away from you.
If you move behind the raised cloth, by RAW, you could take the hide action.
Again if you move behind the raised cloth you are behind total cover. So you pop out cast a spell then pop behind total cover.
Sure it won’t realistically stop every spell casters because they can move unless this happens in some hallway or cave. Just have some barrier stopping everyone from walking around tour make shift.
Honestly, I'd probably house rule it instead of the unseen servant not being able to attack have it follow a rule set like 1. You must do no harm to anything or anyone 2. you must work to the best of your ability to please your sumener as long as it doesn't conflict with rule 1 etcetera. you could probably make it into a story as well if someone uses the unseen servant spell a lot you could make it intervene at a crucial moment and disappear afterward not being able to be summoned again like it broke the rules but that's probably just me wanting to add more depth to everything.
Wow you read book. Cool cool nice cool
The issues you outlined with unseen servant have never given me pause. Obviously acting on another person against their will, is a form of attack.
The issue I have with it is, what does it mean to say that it is "mindless" when it can serve food and fold clothing, even mending (Mending! as in full on sewing!) and so on, those actions seem to require a mind, especially because it can do these things autonomously without continuous prompts from the caster.
Can it preform anything that does not require a skill check?
Can it drive a carriage down a straight path?
Can it search a library for a particular book?
Can it ring a bell if it sees an intruder while you sleep?
These are all very simple tasks but also seem to require a mind, just like those it talks about in the spells description.
This leads some DMs to police it by forcing the caster to micromanage everything the servant does with telepathic commands, which seems wrong. I would feel more comfortable if it were given an intelligence score.
CorndogMaker I agree completely!
Does a computer need a constant input to do such tasks? No otherwise we wouldn't have alarm systems. It has no will, it has no mind, however when you give it a task that it can do it will complete the task like a machine.
@@andresmarrero8666 I think you're right, it doesnt need a "mind" really, I think the real problem is, in D&D the success or failure of performing tasks comes from stats.
An unseen servants *only* use is to preform tasks.
I actually *would* give a computer an Int score too.
It wouldn't represent sentience. It would be about computing power, or how sophisticated sensors are.
You'd only give something an Int of 0 if, thematically, you wanted it to always fail at tasks- like a zombie.
Could use an unseen servant to pickpocket and steal?
This is the most insane video I have seen. Are your players psychotic or something?
I have a question the unseen Servant spell said it can performs simple task that a human servant could do, such as fetching things, cleaning, Mending, folding clothes, lighting fires, serving food, and pouring wine. The mending part is catching my eye and it use the mending cantrip? Also your video was great it was really helpful; keep up the good work.
Mending as in mending clothes, fixing stuff up, not the spell. You can't really cast spells through spells, that is reasonably difficult.
so help action yes or no?
in my game Im a rouge and one of our warlocks uses this spell to trip everyone.
Those are all easy ruling for me.. US is not a creature and not an ally and so it can't give you help and advantage in combat. Any ingenious way the players come up with is only flavour to get the advantage, which can't be done, therefore, doesn't work. It could pour poison on food, it could tie shoes together, it can take items from behind the counter and put it in your bag. But easily fixable by the ruling that it can't do stealth checks and people can see it. So you can only get away with it if nobody is watching, and therefore, anybody could do it anyway.
I assumed it meant it cannot make combat rolls
You good sir, have the radest beard i've ever seen.
LMAO
can it see?
The only issue with this spell are those seeking to make it an issue. The description is pretty clear on its limitations, you basically have an invisible butler and can do what an ordinary butler can reasonably do, no more no less. It is that simple, and as a general rule spells aren't made for surgery and it would simply be quicker, easier, and faster to just use a spell that is designed to directly harm a person.
The description of the unseen servant have a very very ambiguous description like say the requirements for it "a piece of string and a little bit of wood" well a piece a piece can be in any size it can be 100km × 100km or 1cm × 1cm or heck a single piece of a string particles (I unconciously uses the word a "single piece" lel proving that this point is right) that goes the same for the wood a little bit of wood the word little big or small are based on your preception of it meaning little can also be a single particle of wood. Which means taking a strain of string from your shirt and punch a little bit of tree to get a little wood would be enough for frickin idk 23^10? Unseen servants?. And the description only said they can't attack and every other orders they will take to the best of their ability, they doesn't say how many servants can you cast in that one turn.
An interesting idea to use the unseen servant following my theory: filled the whole 60ft of yourself with unseen servants and tell them to carry each other and follow you around making focused attack unusable but aoe might still hit you
Hahaha i got a good laugh at that
I'd give servant the ability to attack with 1 force damage so all that problems would solve